Background Info: Sev was, for all intents and purposes, born into The Solar Cartel. His mother was a servant and his father a smuggler, both of which were in servitude to the Cartel. That being said, he was also born into servitude and would take up the apprenticeship of a mechanic as his service role at the age of twelve. It was not a good or safe time for him as through a number of accidents and mandatory replacements he lost both of his legs, eyes and arm but gained advanced prosthetics that have helped him become extremely good at his profession. As he came of age Sev worked to keep most of the Cartel's tech running throughout the galaxy. He has considered it a blessing and a curse, but has never been able to fully align with the Cartel due to their brutal nature along with the way his mother was treated on a daily basis. After several long years of servitude and the untimely death of his parents, Sev has decided to take sensitive information on a new type of power source pioneered by the Cartel and is intending to sell it to a rival gang and any other buyers, this of course has separated him from the Cartel and has made him a target of many bounty hunters looking to make a few cool millions. Probably more machine than man at this point.

Background: Not much is publicly known about XFE, and those who have heard of her know her by word of mouth. Common knowledge would attest to her efficiency in a job. Crime lords claim she'd killed a man who double crossed him within the hour he put out the bounty. The bank account her rewards are transferred to is well protected and untraceable. Rumor has it she killed the only man to ever crack the account. Less commonly known is the augmented spine she has that runs the length of her back. The few that have seen it rarely get an answer as to why she had to have it, but whatever the details the reason is clear. XFE has taken over 200 bounty offers in her professional career and has had a 93% success rate. She never meets with the clients face to face, even if they specifically request her for the task. Communications and transactions take place exclusively through the Net unless something physical is needed to be presented. In this instance, she sends a robot rigged with explosives to deliver the physical package. This is due to having been denied payment once by a politician. Within eight hours the politician's bank account was nearly drained and donated to a homeless children's fund in the Balsik Colony. The organization was very grateful, and thousands of children were given new clothes, better beds, and a safer environment to preside within. The politician was not re-elected after being caught embezzling money.

Sev brought his arm back once XFE had finished with it. He examined what work she had done to it and elected to close his access panels for the time being. There would be time to tinker on the finer points later, but for now he just wanted back into some regular clothing. The only thing standing between him and his clothing was his legs, and XFE's confirmation that the odd sensations in his augments. It was no secret, the dangers in illegally modding one's mechanical limbs to go beyond set limits. He'd seen what his partner described happen to others who worked alongside him. It was a painful, slow death for a few and Sev definitely did not want to go down that road. The other issue with illegal augments was that they were much more difficult to remove from the body. If one wasn't proficient in dealing with them, they could easily kill their patient. And all for greater physical capabilities. It was more of a boon those above him rather than himself.

The beeping of XFE's scanner brought Sev back into the real world and forced him to look down at her. No irreparable damage, but the damage that was done couldn't be fixed on the ship. And another blow to the nature of his augments. Great. "I never asked to be tweaked. They were forced upon me while I was under anesthesia for my operations. Trust me, I could live without the enhanced capabilities if it didn't mean my life could end because I took a step the wrong way." Annoyed, Sev leaned forward and closed up the service panel on his leg. This would be enough for now. "I'll find someone to fix it at Tandal Station. Until then I'll just have to deal." With that, he stood and collected his undershirt and started for the back of the ship. "Thanks for the help. I need a shower."

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After four long days, the pair would be arriving to the general vicinity of Tandal Station. It was a long four days for Sev that he really felt like he'd spent by himself. XFE was not the best chatting partner and had been reserved on topics that were usually meant to break the ice. Other than discussing plans, the most she got out was about how long she'd being working. After the second day he decided to keep things strictly business between them. Most of the time he tried to take up with taking inventory of the ship's supplies and checking the extranet market for prices on each. As it currently stood, they'd make a cool half a million credits from the drone equipment alone. Double that if they could have caught the ship out before the actual drone was sent out. The communications equipment would net them a cool six hundred thousand as well. Those would be the two big money earners as the combined cost of everything that wasn't already with the ship amounted to around two hundred thousand credits.

The trip was otherwise uneventful. The only excitement was simply entering Tandal's transmission range and being hailed about their intentions on approach. Sev had them set up for a more expensive landing pad, which would make offloading their supplies cheaper in turn. But for now, they were stuck in line to land. Sev was upfront in the pilot's seat, sporting blue cargo shorts, a light grey t-shirt and red jacket above it, all of which were commandeered from the previous tenant's living quarters. He unfortunately could not go roaming about in his fancy armor mostly because of the cartel logos on it, he'd have to work on getting it redone while at Tandal. While he waited, he continued tinkering with his arm, almost getting most of the circuits, gears and other parts back into perfect working order. It was tedious work, but it helped pass the time. Aside from getting in and out of the station as fast as possible, his mind was stuck on grabbing a hot meal the first chance he got.

INTERN MODERATOR

Local Time:

12:22 AM

In the days that followed, XFE was able to recuperate from her concussion. The headache dissipated to give way to a more metaphorical one: their predicament. More accurately, her predicament. She was now the hunted running with the wanted. The bounty was practically given to her by the cartel, but she still didn't know fully why. That was never her job to know the details. It helped her detach from the prey. But based on his augments, Sev was someone of importance. Enhancements like his were expensive, experimental, and time consuming. Then again, it was the cartel; the very organization that could pay her half the hefty sum of the bounty on Sev's head without batting an eye. And that sum was what would have to sustain her until this whole fiasco blew over.

XFE stepped into the cockpit and sat in the copilot's seat as they neared Tandal Station. Unlike her counterpart, she remained in her generic, albeit heavily weathered suit of combat armor. In their transit, she had taken the time to clean it of swamp and blood to make it look presentable to some degree. It wasn't like her appearance would raise alarm, at least in her mind. It was Sev's face she was more concerned about. The cartel could just as easily give his bounty to another hunter to get to them both.

Her paranoia was a large part of her survival and success as a Bounty Hunter mostly off the grid. And yet it did not save her from this level of exposure. She heaved a sigh as she settled back into her seat and watched the station slowly rotate off to the side view.

"We get in, do what we need to do, and get out," she said. "I don't have any contacts on this station, so we play it safe. How advanced are your optics?"

Sev glanced towards XFE as she took the co-pilot's chair in a full set of armor. It made sense to him, best to go with protection if it wasn't going to make you a walking, talking advertisement for the people trying to kill you. He wouldn't be surprised if there was already a cartel agent waiting to find them on Tandal station. It wasn't like the little vessel they were on would have the fuel to get them anywhere substantial in the first place. Tandal was simply on in a handful of locations they could go, so the longer they waited, the better their chances of being caught out were. But for now, he just needed to focus on the task of ditching the ship and getting a new one, then getting out of dodge as soon as possible.

When pressed about the ability of his eye augments Sev took a moment to look XFE over before looking back out towards the station as it came back into view "About as good it can get save for the most advanced military hardware. I can see into the windows on the station." He paused for a moment, seemingly spacing out as he looked towards the hulking metal human habitat. "I can tell you what someone was having for lunch if you cared to know.... Or what movie someone is watching." He broke from his trance and shrugged. "I could tell you that there are at least two hundred ships coming or going from the station. Twenty of which of currently in stealth." He looked from the void and back to XFE's face. "I could tell you just how many freckles you've got on your face. But I couldn't tell you what color underwear you're wearing."

The tinkering on his arm stopped as a voice piped up in his headset letting him know that he was cleared for landing on pad D-131. Sev gave the voice a 'thank you', closed up his arm and brought the ship back to life. "We've got landing pad D-131. I'm taking us in now." He announced as they accelerated towards the station. As they did, he made a number of idle correction to match the station's spin to put them on the right course. "I don't want to hang around any longer than you do. We sell what we can, buy a ship that won't decompress the moment it hits the vacuum, get supplies, any pertinent info and leave. For once I think we're on the same page here."

He continued on, pressing them closer and close to the station until the hangar bay doors were in view of the naked, un-enhanced, eye. Soon they would pass through, be scanned by security forces inside of the station and then tractored to their landing pad. Once the controls were relinquished, he leaned back and sighed. "Think we'll need an alibi or just keep our heads down?"

INTERN MODERATOR

Local Time:

12:22 AM

She was listening to Sev as he listed off his visual capabilities. XFE leaned forward in her seat intently as she searched through the black void of space at the surrounding ships in rotation around Tandal. Her paranoia once again kicked in as she studied each ship in view. She had to be sure they weren't someone of note; that she didn't recognize the ships at all. Any bounty hunter of note had been memorized and ingrained in her brain. Everyone was studied and scrutinized. She liked to think of it as being thorough and that it was a factor into her success as a hunter.

"Both. Don't use any alias you've already used," she said. "Do you know how to hack a kiosk for a credit chit without giving away your access location? My splice device was in my ship."

They docked in the station without a hitch. No red flags seemed to be triggered, and no one seemed to even care about them. At least for now. Yet XFE still felt on edge. They could sell this ship and use the money to buy another, but Sev needed parts too. Money was going to be tight, especially if they couldn't access their accounts incognito.

"You're an easy find if you're not careful," she added. "I tracked you through your augments, but not everyone knows how. They have to have access to the information the cartel currently holds on you and then know how to utilize it. I think right now we only have to worry about you being recognized by more traditional means."

Sev smirked at XFE's question. "Maybe I should make you a list of things I can't do." His smirk dropped as he actually gave the task some thought. "I can do it, but it'll take a while since I'll have to cover my usual tells. There's more than a few people in the cartel that know my style who'd be more than willing to lend a hand in catching me. I'd give it...six, seven minutes tops. If we can find a quiet area on the station it shouldn't raise much suspicion at all."

Docking went easy enough, and there was no execution squad waiting for them on the pad. It was one obstacle down, but now they were in the station's systems and it was only a matter of time before whomever came looking for them put two and two together. Staying hidden wouldn't be difficult, at least not for a few days. "Yeah, we can avoid those traditional means without an issue. When the Cartel gets a whiff and comes looking, we'll have to be long gone."

Sev stood and made his way towards the rear of the ship. He stopped by the ship's lockers to arm himself with a simple pistol holstered at his waist, hidden behind the fabric of his jacket. "As far as an alibi goes," He said, heading towards the loading ramp. "I'm just a trader. You're my insurance, what with that getup. With the right dealer we won't have to answer too many questions or sign anything concrete." Once arrived, he slapped the release button on the ramp and waited for it fold down onto the metal deck. "Or you could just be my girlfriend. Your choice."

Sev turned, smiled to himself and stepped down onto the landing pad. With a deep breath he realized just how much he'd been missing air that wasn't recycled for the umpteenth time over. Whatever ship they got next, it needed better air recyclers. And better facilities. While XFE got ready to exit the ship, Sev went for a few stretches. They weren't needed but it'd look normal to any prying eyes behind a camera lens and was a good cover for him to begin accessing whatever information he could off of Tandal's open and undernet in regards to traders, ship dealers and information brokers. Anyone willing to buy hot merchandise or sell secrets was on his list, and already he was getting some very interesting hits.

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